Now that exchange-traded funds investing in bitcoin have won landmark approval from U.S. regulators, financial advisors face a decision on how to guide clients on including or excluding the securities from portfolios.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday gave a green light to Fidelity, BlackRock, Invesco and other firms to sell 11 ETFs that invest directly in the cryptocurrency.
At the same time, the commission urged caution on bitcoin and products linked to the asset. The SEC noted that it doesn't endorse bitcoin.
Trading started Thursday.
"Spot bitcoin ETFs are the best option on the fund market for bitcoin investors," Bryan Armour, director of passive strategies research for North America and editor of Morningstar ETFInvestor newsletter at Morningstar, wrote in a column.
Armour noted that the ETFs' prices should closely follow bitcoin's, before fees and trading costs. Investors, however, should put their money into the bitcoin ETFs only if the investment makes sense for them, he added.
In response to ThinkAdvisor queries, five advisors offered their views, by email, on how they would suggest that clients approach the new ETFs.
"We are an investment advisor focusing on digital assets. We obviously recommend direct ownership of bitcoin and other crypto assets, However, a spot bitcoin ETF is a decent option for those looking to gain exposure," said Mike Soroudi, vice president for operations and compliance at Digital Asset Investment Management.
"The pros are that it creates a more diversified portfolio and even a small allocation, 5-10%, can add meaningful alpha for an investor over long time horizons. Bitcoin is volatile, but its volatility favors the upside over time. Therefore adding it to a portfolio can and has been shown to improve a portfolio's Sharpe ratio, which relates the return to the risk undertaken, over time," he added.
"The major downside of the ETF is that it is a less efficient product due to tracking error," he added. "The ETF will be cash-settled, trade during market hours instead of 24/7, and have a management fee paid to the company offering the ETF. These issues will lead to the ETF price dislocating from the underlying spot bitcoin price. It will be a small difference but could add up over time."
Ross Dugas, founder and financial advisor at Scientific Financial, takes an entirely different approach.
"Scientific Financial does not recommend investing in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. We take a traditional view of investing in which investors own a fraction of profit-generating companies. Those profits flow back to investors through either dividends or stock appreciation, leading to a justifiable valuation," he said.